Mrs. Elliott gave answer. "Don't be in a flurry, Meg. All men are alike. They get took that way now and then. They're as hard to get forward sometimes as a full-mouthed ewe in the dipping yards. Don't be too quick on him yet. Maybe he's fell out with Miss Neville at Surprise, and is in the sulks."
Unlucky Scandalous pushed his face through the kitchen doorway. "What's come to the boss of a sudden? He's as cross-grained as you like. Took it out of me just now because he reckoned the place was untidy down there."
"And a good thing too," said Mrs. Elliott, turning sharp about. "If you spent more time on the woodheap, instead of sneaking up here minding other people's business, you might be took up less often."
One morning at breakfast, when Mrs. Elliott had bustled to put something special on the table and had not had "Good morning" for her pains, as Power sat gloomy, despising his food and chewing thought, she took him to task.
"Mr. Power," she said, putting down a new cup of tea, and taking up a stand before him, "what's come on you that you give up the horses and stand twiddling your thumbs?"
"There's no work outside."
"That's the first time that's ever been. What are them horses doing in and out of the yards every day, and not a leg put across them?"
"It's too hot to ride about for nothing."
"Nothing? The best horses in the country hanging their heads because nothing doing? I never heard of a run which wasn't the better for looking after. Do you know what they say at Surprise? They say Simpson gets half his meat uncommon cheap, so cheap that it only takes him a quiet ride at times when Kaloona's asleep to fill his yards for the morning. They say he is a quicker man at hiding a branded beast than any feller on Kaloona is at finding one."
"I've heard that story. He doesn't get many, and he'll drop in in good time."